First impressions of the Isoacoustic Gaia 1’s


On my KEF Reference 5’s.

While I normally hear little to no change with “Tweaks”, I installed them Saturday evening and found immediate spatial differences. Just about every album sounded more open. I told my wife, who helped me install the Gaia’s,  that if I wasn’t wowed, I’d send them back.

The room has wall to wall carpet and pad on the floor and when  I first received the Reference 5’s, they sounded flat. I put small hardwood flooring samples under them and it helped a little.  I then put a small slab of granite under each of them and they became much nicer to listen to. I was quite surprised at the change. 
The Gaia 1’s are sitting on the granite as well and so far, I’m very happy. 

It’s only been a few days, but I’m pretty sure they are “hear” to stay.

Anyone else have similar experience’s with speaker. Isolation?

JD

128x128curiousjim

@norton ,

 I completely agree with you. I moved into a new to me home and started building a new system.  When I bought my KEF Reference 5 speakers they were to heavy to move around on the fully carpeted room with the spikes on, so I left them off. After I got them close to where I wanted them, I put on the spikes and didn’t hear much of a change.  I had some sample blocks of hardwood flooring and I put them under the spikes and I heard a difference, things opened up and the bass was a little clearer.  I then got some pieces of granite countertop and put the spiked speakers on the granite without the wood samples and again I heard a difference. So with a money back if I didn’t like sale I tried the Gaia 1’s on the granite countertop pieces and and I am really impressed!  The speakers are the same and so is the amp. Neither were updated in any way.

All the best

JD

+1 Townsend Podiums

These produced, perhaps, the greatest improvement in SQ then any component,

Worth many times the price.

I had the Gaia 1’s under my Sopra 2 speakers and was quite impressed with them. Then one of threads talked about the Townshend podiums. I contacted them via email (in England) and they responded the next day.

I ordered them and once installed I couldn’t believe the improvement in sound staging, frequency response, etc. And, I thought the Gaia’s were good! I was sold on them.

BTW, when I removed the Sopra’s spikes they sat perfectly on the podiums and in my opinion didn’t raise them anymore than they were with the spikes installed. For sure they were shorter than with the Gaia’ 1’s. And you can adjust the height, rake etc.

I ended up installing the Gaia’s under my JL F-113 subs.

ozzy

havocman may well be correct.  The Townshend platforms seem quite credible, as pointed out they are three times the price of Gaia footers but may well outperform them.  The point here is simply that the Gaia footers are credible and worth the price of admission.

I've run them on two pairs of floor standers with great affect.  BTW, the carpet spikes used in conjunction with the footers provides even more improvement. Nice discussion.

 

I guess I’ll say it again, though perhaps again to no avail ;-) . The Townshend Podium cost multiples the price of the IsoAcoustics GAIA II and III (though not the GAIA I), but a set of Townshend Seismic Pods doesn’t. In fact, a set of 4 Pods costs less than a set of GAIA II, and far less than a set of GAIA I.